Attorney: Dickson letter boasted of fights, killings

Posted: Thursday, September 16, 1999

MARY ALICE ROBBINSMorris News Service

AUSTIN - A letter that Ryan Heath Dickson wrote to a teen-age girlfriend from jail while awaiting trial for the shooting death of an Amarillo grocer was the focus of arguments Wednesday before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Potter County Assistant District Attorney Jack Owen told the court that the letter, which contains obscene boasts about fighting, thwarting police and killing people, was introduced as evidence to show that Dickson intended to murder 61-year-old Carmelo Surace during a Nov. 27, 1994, robbery of Surace's grocery store to gain status in a gang.

But Gene Fristoe, Dickson's attorney, contended that the letter couldn't show his client's state of mind because it was written months after the murder.

Fristoe argued that prosecutors' purpose in introducing the letter was to influence the jury against Dickson by reminding them of his ties to a gang.

"I'm an O.G. (original gangster), not a little soldier boy," Dickson wrote in the letter.

Dickson was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to die for Surace's death. Surace's wife, 60-year-old Marie Rosalie, also was shot to death during the robbery. That case is pending.

Defense attorneys had argued that Dickson shot Carmelo Surace in a struggle over the gun.

The prosecution contended the shooting was intentional.

Owen said Dickson once bragged, "I have earned my stripes," referring to the killing of Carmelo Surace. Gaining status in the gang motivated the killing, Owen said.

Although the judges gave no indication how they might rule, one member of the criminal appeals court questioned Owen's motive in introducing the letter.

"It has nothing to do with the fact that everyone knows that any time you talk about gangs, it's going to influence the jury," said Judge Tom Price.

But another member of the court, Judge Mike Keasler, said the letter was meant to refute the defense's theory that the shooting was an accident.